Martin Lol

Is there any truth in the rumours of Parker going to Villa on loan?

There's been mumblings about him being loaned to QPR  but there's been nothing about Villa as far as I know.

The Spurs kids, after having beaten Newcastle at the weekend, today beat Barcelona 4-1 in Spain in the NextGen series.

Better to watch than the first team at the present time tbh

More info coming out of Haringey Council .............

Developers and selected housing associations were alerted last night to over 25 ‘key development opportunity sites’ across the north London borough of Haringey.

Haringey Council leader Claire Kober presented a selected audience at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club with Haringey Investment Potential. Invitees included Newlon Housing Group and Family Mosaic.

Notable development sites in the ‘investment pack’ included Alexandra Palace - a Grade II-listed iconic north London landmark - St Ann’s Hospital, Haringey Heartlands where the council seeks 1,000 new homes, and Haringey’s own Civic Centre.

Guests inside the club’s plush Bill Nicholson Suite also received a copy of the council’s 'A Plan for Tottenham'. Endorsed by Mayor of London Boris Johnson, the Plan promises ‘up to 10,000 new high quality homes and over 5,000 new jobs’ for Tottenham by 2025.

Kober said Spurs’ £400 million new stadium would provide Tottenham with 300 new homes and 800 ‘match day’ jobs. The Tottenham area of Haringey is still recovering from the August 2011 riots.

“We were prepared to reduce Section 106 terms to get the Spurs scheme moving,” said Kober, referring chiefly to the absence of affordable homes at the new Spurs stadium site. “We want to see new housing and estate renewal in Tottenham benefiting old and new residents.”

Spurs finance director Matthew Collecott announced a main contractor had been appointed to build a new Sainsbury’s supermarket, the first stage of Spurs’ stadium plan. The stadium leads the regeneration of the Northumberland Park area of Tottenham.

Collecott hoped the new stadium, scheduled to open in Summer 2016, would “act as a catalyst for further regeneration and investment for Tottenham which is currently undergoing a major transition”.

Sir Bob Kerslake, Head of the Civil Service and Permanent Secretary for the Department of Communities and Local Government, said: “Transformative change is exactly the right response to the disturbances of 2011. The government will be right behind you.”

Haringey Council’s Tottenham project director Anne Lippitt said regeneration could include a new Victoria Line tube station at Northumberland Park and increased overground rail commuter services.

Lippitt added Tottenham needed more owner-occupiers and better shops. “Tottenham has a lot of fried chicken shops,” said Lippitt. “It’d be good if Tottenham had places like Costa Coffee.”

I think I like the idea of a new tube station more than Costa Coffee shops! 

Spurs will be raking in the cash with their ticket price structure plus a 60k stadium to fill.

 

Wait, will they even be able to fill 60k?

There's about 35k paying £10 pa to be on the waiting list so, in theory, we should be able to fill it.  There may have to be some creative thinking with regards to some matches, the Arse charge £10 for League Cup games and I could imagine Levy doing something similar.

Last night WHL was the venue of a presentation for 100 companies and investors involved in the proposed regeneration of Tottenham, attended by MP David Lammy and Head of the UK Civil Service & Permanent Secretary at Dept for Communities and Local Govt Sir Bob Kerslake.

During the evening, Spurs formally announced the first phase build of club's new stadium rebuilding.  Nothing new, it's actually the new Sainsbury's supermarket with some Spurs offices above that represents the first phase and the work had already started, but at least it has been formally announced now.  Was also being said the capacity will be over 60k when complete.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/sep/22/said-and-done-number-crunching

 

particularly this

 

£3m: West Ham's offer towards the £160m cost of converting the Olympic Stadium into their new 99-year-leased home ground, according to industry reports – with the balance from public money. An Olympic source told BDonline: "They're playing hardball." (£3m: West Ham's nine-month wage commitment to Andy Carroll.)

 

Why the hell should they be allowed to have the stadium without paying a proper chunk (assuming no-ones going to stump up the full cost) of the conversion?

well they can't have paying for them using the olympic stadium cutting into the profits they'll pocket from selling off upton park

Latest article on the Olympic Stadium, this time from the Guardian............

Olympic Stadium negotiations may drag on past end of October deadline

• West Ham embroiled in tense discussions with LLDC

• Olympic Stadium modifications to cost £160m

Owen Gibson

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 10 October 2012 12.07 BST

The future of the Olympic Stadium may not be resolved by the original deadline of the end of the month.

West Ham United are keen to become the main tenants of the stadium in time for the start of the 2014-15 season but are embroiled in tense negotiations with the London Legacy Development Corporation about modifications to be made to the stadium at a cost of up to £160m and who will pay for them.

The board of the LLDC, chaired by the London mayor, Boris Johnson, after the previous chairman, Daniel Moylan, was moved from the role after only four months, remains split on whether the solution should include West Ham or not.

The LLDC chief executive, Dennis Hone, told the Guardian that talks were entering the "end game" ahead of a crucial board meeting next week, but said there was no "knockout" bid and the arguments for and against football and the changes demanded by West Ham remained finely balanced. "If we can't come to a conclusion, in the scheme of things if it slips another month or two I'd rather get the right solution," Hone said.

"Yes, the stadium is tricky. But it's tricky because we want to get it right. I would hate to bung someone in there and see it fall apart in five years. If it takes a couple of extra months to get there, then so be it."

While football would attract large crowds on a regular basis, he said that aside from the stadium conversion there were also attendant costs in terms of the stewarding and transport considerations.

Hone said: "We've had discussions with all of the bidders. The difficulty is that we're balancing the adaptations we have to make to the stadium against the proposals that have come in and the benefits – financial and otherwise – that those proposals bring. If it was a knockout [verdict] it would be an easy decision, but it's not."

The other bids under consideration, which could be incorporated alongside West Ham rather than instead of them, are from Leyton Orient, a consortium wanting to hold Formula One racing in the Park – though that is unlikely – and a football business college.

It has already been decided that the £486m stadium will host about 20 days of athletics a year, including Diamond League meetings and the 2017 world championships, and will be available for community use. Newham council is contributing a £40m loan towards the project.

Once the main tenants have been decided, a stadium operator will be appointed to manage a programme of concerts and other sporting events.

Some at City Hall believe that, with the already iconic stadium having proved its worth as a concert and sporting venue during the Olympics, the LLDC should press on without football. But others, including Johnson, believe that West Ham still offer the most sustainable long-term solution while wanting to ensure that the deal is beneficial to taxpayers.

Whatever the solution, a full roof and permanent hospitality and toilet facilities need to be added to the stadium shell. But West Ham also want to bring temporary seating behind the goals, for which there are a number of options from stands that could be dropped into position for the football season to retractable seating. That also has implications for the roof, if it is to be extended to cover the temporary stands, which would need to be cantilevered over the existing structure.

Hone said it was important that any modifications were of high quality and would last for the long term without compromising the aesthetics and atmosphere of a stadium that had proved its mettle during the Games.

"My view is that if you're going to do adaptations, do quality adaptations that can last for 75 years and that we can all be proud of," he said. "But that's difficult to justify if the cost comes back on the public sector. Those are the imponderables we're working through at the moment."

It is understood that a decision on the stadium could be pushed back as far as December if no agreement is reached at this month's board meeting. The process, which had to be restarted after a previous attempt to award a long-term lease to West Ham collapsed under the weight of legal challenges from Spurs and Orient, has already had its deadline extended once to allow bidders to make modifications to their original bids.

The West Ham vice-chair, Karren Brady, last month underlined the club's credentials, promising the LLDC and taxpayers that it would not only bring "the most exciting and most watched football league in the world to Stratford" but "retain the Olympic legacy that Lord Coe feels so passionate about" through community work and local engagement.

West Ham are understood to be concerned about the impact of any further delay and remain keen to conclude a deal by the end of the month, convinced that their solution offers the only long term viable future for the stadium.

If the timetable slips much further, there are fears the club would struggle to make the move in time for the start of the 2014-15 season.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/oct/10/olympic-stadium-deadline-west-ham

The future of the OS should have been resolved long before the Olympics started.  Utter shambles.

AVB: “What is the frustration?”

 

Journalist: “Well, the frustration at not being in the team.”

 

AVB: “How do you know?”

 

Journalist: “Well, he didn’t play last night, did he?”

 

AVB: “How do you know he’s frustrated?”

 

Journalist: “No, I’m asking you, do you find him frustrated?”

 

so basically the journalist tried to put words into AVBs mouth, failed and then denied it. they are actually total scum when they want to be

One journo broke ranks ................

The conspiracy to unsettle Andre Villas-Boas

Duncan Castles

Oct 8, 2012

It could be ascribed to jealousy, conservatism or even good old-fashioned revenge, but Andre Villas-Boas would be forgiven for thinking that English football has it in for him.

His appointment in place of the well-connected Harry Redknapp was always going to be met sceptically in certain quarters.

Quick-fired at Chelsea is not meant to be followed by stewardship of the Premier League's fourth best team. Old managerial hands were gleefully questioning Villas-Boas's credentials before he even had one training session with his full squad.

According to Gordon Strachan, last seen flirting with the Championship relegation places at Middlesbrough two years ago, people were conned into believing every coach with a foreign accent was "a tactical genius".

Starting home matches with two holding midfielders, partly because most of his new attackers had been signed in deadline week, Villas-Boas was too defensive, the team prone to basic errors. Much worse was to be laid on the Portuguese.

The decision to not immediately install a last-minute signing in goal turned into a ludicrous soap opera in which it was claimed Villas-Boas never wanted to sign Hugo Lloris in the first place.

The truth was that the France goalkeeper had been earmarked by the coach before he had even signed his own White Hart Lane contract. Continuing with the in-form Brad Friedel as No 1 was standard man management.

Why alter a functioning defence and place unnecessary pressure on an expensive recruit until Lloris had time to adapt?

By his fourth fixture, Villas-Boas had "three games to save his Tottenham job", according to one English Sunday newspaper.

Tottenham proceeded to dismantle Reading for a first win of the season, then come back to beat Queens Park Rangers at home. No matter.

On the morning of Villas-Boas's hardest task so far - an away trip to Manchester United - The Sun newspaper lead on supposed "showdown talks" between coach and players over "gruelling double training sessions" and his "negative style of football".

According to a source, there had been no double sessions in Villas-Boas's regular-season training schedule, and not one player had complained about tactics. Could the timing of the article be in any way related to Redknapp's employment as the newspaper's star columnist?

Villas-Boas knows the best way to answer his enemies is to win. Unfortunately for the antis, he is doing precisely that.

http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/sport-comment/the-conspiracy-to-unsettle-andre-villas-boas

Keep your fingers crossed that Fergie starts with a midfield of Carrick, Scholes and Giggs again.

Scholes pulling a hamstring in training would also be a benefit for you.

How Journalism Works

 

AVB made a journalist look a bit of a fool at a press conference on Thursday. The initial question asked was "“Andre, do you understand Hugo Lloris’ frustration about the situation, because you did pay a lot of money for him?" This was followed by:

 

AVB: “What is the frustration?”

 

Journalist: “Well, the frustration at not being in the team.”

 

AVB: “How do you know?”

 

Journalist: “Well, he didn’t play last night, did he?”

 

AVB: “How do you know he’s frustrated?”

 

Journalist: “No, I’m asking you, do you find him frustrated?”

 

and it continued in a similar vein (http://www.offthepost.info/blog/2012/09/tottenham-manager-andre-villas-boas-hilarious-response-to-hugo-lloris-frustration-question/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+offthepost%2FTLAa+(Off+The+Post)).

 

Then this morning's Sun carried the following piece:

 

UNHAPPY Tottenham stars held showdown talks with Andre Villas-Boas over his training and tactics.

 

MUTINY ... Villas-Boas has unhappy players at Spurs

Spurs in turmoil

'Tired' stars slam AVB

Exclusive

By PAUL JIGGINS (source: The Sun)

 

Boss AVB also had a bust-up with technical co-ordinator Tim Sherwood, who is allegedly angry at being frozen out.

 

Players complained that AVB’s gruelling double training sessions — sometimes staged just 24 hours before a match — left them too tired to perform in Premier League matches this season.

 

And Spurs stars have also hit out at their manager’s negative style of football, telling him they would prefer to play a more attacking system. AVB has scrapped the double training sessions after listening to his squad.

 

Spurs, away at Manchester United tonight, are eighth in the table and unbeaten since losing at Newcastle in their opening game.

 

But AVB is said to have been left reeling by the mutiny, which reportedly follows bust-ups with some of the club’s old guard behind the scenes.

 

The Portuguese boss, who took over in July, ruthlessly axed chief scout Ian Broomfield earlier this month. AVB’s row with Sherwood has also caused concern. The former midfielder was looking to be more involved with the first team this season.

 

But AVB said this week: “I think the chairman sees Tim working with the development squad.”

 

Sherwood may quit if his old club Blackburn offer him the chance to replace Steve Kean, who quit last night.

 

The situation has echoes of the way AVB infuriated the Chelsea squad last season before he was sacked.

 

Villas-Boas was fined £12,000 for criticising referee Chris Foy last season — and the same man takes charge today. Asked whether United boss Alex Ferguson has an influence over refs, the Spurs boss said: “It’s an interesting question but I paid a very high fine last time and I don’t want to do that again.”

 

Any relevant quotes from the players? No. Any "insider" quoted? No. Who's the writer? Paul Jiggins. Guess who the journalist at the press conference was?

 

And the icing on the cake:

 

Paul Jiggins @jggns

 

Im optimistic Arsenal can have a good season. Lets get it started today with a couple of goals and a clean sheet.

 

I know we all know this by now, but I think it's nice to be reminded from time to time. They make it up, and they have agendas.

 

And while I'm at it, thank f*** we won today. Great in the first half and s**** in the second, but we got some of the breaks that we've missed in the past.

Players' tweets on the turmoil ............

@kyle28walker: Just landed back in London still buzzing from the win thought the gaffers tactics were stop on and all that in the paper is false #COYS

@spiderhair @mousadembele @jan_vertonghen @iamjermaindefoe no truth to the rumours. Just people trying to stir. Sad really.

I like Martin Jol, but almost all his posts are positive about Spurs. Would like to see the odd bit of negativity in there about how Spurs are actually going backwards rather than forwards

No negativity from me, I'm naturally optimistic.  So we lost 2-0 last night (good game though) and the Chief Scout walked out (we might get someone better).............

Levy and Joe Lewis were at WHL last night watching the kids losing to Barcelona in the NextGen series.

Lewis has been to WHL more in the last 6 months than in the preceding 10 years.  All the talk is that there will be series of announcements in the next couple of months regarding starting building the new stadium, seating 62k, naming rights, potentially new owner.

The first announcement being made on 23rd September.

Head scout Ian Broomfield has gone, don't know who will replace him.

The new training ground is up and running.  Not as good as Man City's but still better than many........

http://instagram.com/p/Pb8pJeRAbn/

Spurs have apparently had a bid for Llorente accepted.

Bindipper not happy how things are going .................  Tony JFT96 ‏@Tony_The_Red

Spurs have submitted a higher bid for Llorente after last bid was rejected. Meanwhile were looking down backs of couches for Demps fee. #LFC

Spurs supporting mate of mine claiming they are likely to sign Willian as well.

 

Llors, Vertonghen, Sigurdsson, Dembele, Willian and Moutinho.

 

WHAT

THE

f***

 

Willan 25m turned down. Spurs wanted to pay in 5 instalments.

There's talk about Willian/Remy/Berbatov.

The wife of a poster on one of our forums has worked at the private hospital that Spurs use for years, she's said 2 medicals are done/ongoing (presumably Lloris and Moutinho) and another is provisionally booked for this afternoon.  That is for the mystery player I suppose ............. assuming that a 3rd will get that far.

BTW, Adebayor was left off the list of incomings.

Not certain how I feel about the idea but there's a lot of talk about Berbatov coming home. 

 

So its not complete(to Fulham) as you said this morning?

To be exact, I said "Being said the move to Fulham is now complete"

That was from a Fulham forum.

After several days of negotiations, Hugo Lloris Lyon goes to leave Tottenham. The goalkeeper is expected in London in the afternoon to pass his medical.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/Actualites/Lloris-enfin-a-tottenham/309809

Having his medical now apparently

Not certain how I feel about the idea but there's a lot of talk about Berbatov coming home. 

Surely Spurs/Liverpool have to take a punt on Leandro. I would say us but we all know there's f***ing no chance of that happening or punting on anyone to be honest.

Spurs have been trying for about 2 years to get Leandro but Internacional keep moving the goalposts.  So much for the partnership agreement we have with them.  Probably pissed off when we mugged them for Sandro.

Berbatov to Fulham is off apparently, could be heading back to Spurs.

 

Wouldn't surprise me tbh. They're desperate for another striker.

 

Would love to see us going for Berba. One of the very best strikers when he's got the ball.

 

Our problem would be giving him the ball in the first place.

 

Yeah, our strikers didn't end up with many goals last season, you're right.

Being said the move to Fulham is now complete.  £4m is a bargain for such quality.

Why is Van dar Vaart going? Has that come out of the blue? He is one of their best players.

All about Sylvie and her TV show.  He's not a perfect fit for AVB's system but a quality player.  Sad to see him go but not gutted.

Marseilles say they have turned down bid for Remy from ............... Spurs per SSN ticker

AVB speak with forked tongue.

He did but that was because he wanted CL with Man Utd.  Nothing personal with the manager.

If we get Remy, Lloris and Moutinho on top of the other signings, this will be our best window ever.

I'm very cynical about the situation.  Ashley isn't running the club astutely or with a long term plan, he's running it as cheaply as he can, extracting as much money as he can without wrecking it and hoping that Pardew and his team (including scouts) can keep pulling off miracles like they did last season.

 

I don't think we have the cash to spend, not because we are being prudent (though having no cash does force this as a result) but because Ashley is only looking at how he can recover his debt.

 

Now you could argue that putting a good playing team together helps that cause but in my eyes that is just a bonus for Ashley.

 

I don't expect much activity, I did think Pardew might be given c£10m to spend so we may see one furthet player in but that will be it.  Not massively impressive given the money we got for 5th place, Sky cash and season ticket money.

 

Hope that is enough to get us through another season in a reasonable place but I think 5th place would be overachieving again with the squad we have currently.

 

All in all, frustrated but not unexpected.

 

 

 

As an outsider looking in, I think Ashley is doing an excellent job.  Maybe he isn't spending a fortune on individual players but at the moment you don't need to.  You've got a scout envied by the rest of the PL identifying quality players before they become household names (and expensive).  Admittedly, Cisse, for example, wasn't a small fee but there's no need to pay £20m for a player when Carr can find the likes of Tiote and Cabaye for a fraction of the cost.

 

It seems to me that whenever Pardew identifies a need Carr finds the player and Ashley comes up with the money. 

 

There's a few PL teams that would appreciate that scenario.

 

 

 

 

 

Probably somewhere inbetween lies the answer, we're similar to Everton, when we should be similar to yourselves.

 

Ashley is either a genius in that he was the only person in football that spotted what Pardew could do here or he's very lucky that between Carr and Pardew they've managed to do what Moyes has done at Everton. Let's not forget he stumbled upon this frugal approach after a series of catastrophic blunders left us relegated and he failed to sell the club and didn't want to subsidise it any further.

 

He's a risk taker, he's shown that all throughout his life, he doesn't conform, he's raising our profile this season with European football and more importantly for him, his tacky sports shop brand and if he can do that without spending any money he will, as even if we fall down the league a little bit the lost revenue will be more than made up thanks to the new tv deal.

 

We're a profitable well ran club with European football this season, that makes NUFC a more valuable and saleable asset to MA, from a football perspective, is this as great an opportunity missed as when we only signed Lee Bowyer?

I think it's the early mistakes like having Wise as a DoF, the relegation season and failure to sell the club that has made Ashley evolve into the owner that he is now.

From those early days of wasting money, Ashley is now running the club well.  I wouldn't call his approach frugal if he's supplying the money to buy the players you need.  There's no point in Carr doing the job he's doing if when he finds Cabaye available for less than £4.5m only for Ashley wanting him to find someone cheaper.  Now that's what I would call frugal!

I'm very cynical about the situation.  Ashley isn't running the club astutely or with a long term plan, he's running it as cheaply as he can, extracting as much money as he can without wrecking it and hoping that Pardew and his team (including scouts) can keep pulling off miracles like they did last season.

 

I don't think we have the cash to spend, not because we are being prudent (though having no cash does force this as a result) but because Ashley is only looking at how he can recover his debt.

 

Now you could argue that putting a good playing team together helps that cause but in my eyes that is just a bonus for Ashley.

 

I don't expect much activity, I did think Pardew might be given c£10m to spend so we may see one furthet player in but that will be it.  Not massively impressive given the money we got for 5th place, Sky cash and season ticket money.

 

Hope that is enough to get us through another season in a reasonable place but I think 5th place would be overachieving again with the squad we have currently.

 

All in all, frustrated but not unexpected.

 

 

As an outsider looking in, I think Ashley is doing an excellent job.  Maybe he isn't spending a fortune on individual players but at the moment you don't need to.  You've got a scout envied by the rest of the PL identifying quality players before they become household names (and expensive).  Admittedly, Cisse, for example, wasn't a small fee but there's no need to pay £20m for a player when Carr can find the likes of Tiote and Cabaye for a fraction of the cost.

It seems to me that whenever Pardew identifies a need Carr finds the player and Ashley comes up with the money. 

There's a few PL teams that would appreciate that scenario.

Martin Jol said on 5Live earlier and on the Fulham OS that they had accepted the bid for Dembele who was having a medical tonight.

Now being said that he passed the medical and there are two more booked for tomorrow, Lloris and Willian. 

Even then, it's still being suggested that won't be the end for this window, another striker..........

If all that happens there shouldn't be any complaints about Levy not supporting AVB.

@OLNews_eng: The Lyon correspondent for RMC radio just reported that Lyon has accepted a 13M€+2M€ bonus offer for Hugo Lloris. #ligue1”

David Button confirmed as gone to Charlton.